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Reworking the Psychomancer and Touching Up the Chronomancer and a Few Relics  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
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Made in dk
Loyal Necron Lychguard






CHRONOMANCER
  • Aeonstave (melee): Range Melee; Type Melee; Strength User; AP -; Damage 1; Abilities: Enemy units hit by this weapon are slowed until the start of your next turn. Reduce the Movement characteristic of models in slowed units by 2" unless they move through Difficult Ground. Each time the bearer fights, it makes 3 additional attacks with this weapon.

  • Aeonstave (shooting): Range 36"; Type Assault D6; Strength 4; AP -; Damage 1; Abilities: Blast. Enemy units hit by this weapon are slowed until the start of your next turn. Reduce the Movement characteristic of models in slowed units by 2" unless they move through Difficult Ground.

  • Entropic lance (melee): Range Melee; Type Melee; Strength User; AP -3; Damage 3; Abilities: Invulnerable saving throws cannot be taken against attacks made by this weapon.

  • Entropic lance (shooting): Range 18"; Type Assault 1; Strength 8; AP -3; Damage 3; Abilities: Invulnerable saving throws cannot be taken against attacks made by this weapon.

  • Chronotendrils - removed.

    PSYCHOMANCER
  • Abyssal staff (melee): Range Melee; Type Melee; Strength User; AP -3; Damage 1; Abilities: -.

  • Abyssal staff (shooting): Range 12"; Type Assault D6; Strength 4; AP -3; Damage 1; Abilities: Attacks made with this weapon automatically hit. Enemy units hit by this weapon cannot fire Overwatch or Set to Defend until the end of the turn.


  • Nightmare Shroud: In your Morale phase, you can select one enemy unit within 18" of this model that has not already been selected for this ability this turn, subtract 1 from Combat Attrition tests taken for that unit until the start of your next turn. In addition, roll 3D6: if the result is greater than the enemy unit's Leadership characteristic, the selected unit loses the Objective Secured ability and cannot perform actions (if that unit is currently performing an action, it immediately fails).

    Harbinger of Despair: At the start of the Fight phase, you can select one enemy unit within 3" of this unit. That unit is not eligible to fight this phase until after all eligible units from your army have done so.

    THE VANQUISHER’S MASK
    SAUTEKH model only. Enemy units within 6" of the bearer cannot automatically pass Leadership or Combat Attrition tests. The bearer can re-roll failed hit rolls against CHARACTERS.

    THE SOLAR STAFF
    NEPHREKH model with a staff of light only. This Relic replaces a staff of light and has the following profile:
  • The Solar Staff (melee): Range Melee; Type Melee; Strength User; AP -2; Damage 1; Abilities:

  • The Solar Staff (shooting): Range 18"; Type Assault 3; Strength 5; AP -2; Damage 1; Abilities: Friendly NEPHREKH units can charge units hit by this weapon this turn even if they Advanced.


  • INFINITY MANTLE
    NIHILAKH model only. Improve the bearer's Sv to 2+. When the Techno-Oracular Targeting Stratagem is used for the bearer, it costs 0 CP.

    SEMPITERNAL WEAVE
    Increase the Toughness and Wounds characteristics of the bearer by 1. If the bearer Remains Stationary in your Movement phase increase the bearer's Toughness to 10 until the bearer moves instead of increasing the bearer's Toughness by 1.

    THE ORB OF ETERNITY
    Model with a resurrection orb only. The bearer can use their resurrection orb once per battle round instead of once per game.

    DISCUSSION
    The aeonstave and entropic lance were changed to have a more focussed role, one slowing and killing hordes and the other ageing anything to dust regardless of defences. Ignoring invulnerable saves with an AP-2 weapon matters very rarely and Blast D3 is not much of an anti-horde weapon. Chronotendrils were removed because rolling their attacks separately is a waste of time.

    I think the entropic lance is about as good as previously, doing D3 less damage at range and with 6" less range but ignoring invulnerables with shooting and in melee, the aeonstave seems a lot better, probably by about 10 points, which would put it on par with the entropic lance.

    Psychomancers are too reliant on getting within 12" and not getting unlucky with the 3d6 roll to do anything or getting within 6" to morale bomb targets. I wanted to keep Psychomancers focussed on short ranged effects and bring back the old flamer they had, so their main weapon was changed to a flamer and their ability's range was increased to 18".

    Instead of choosing from different options after rolling well on the 3d6, the options were rolled into their other ability and their weapon to make them more reliable and increasing the maximum benefit you can get from them in a single turn, a short ranged fight-last ability works decently as a defensive mechanism, a short-ranged morale bomb effect is just impossible to use on such a slow character, it could be argued that like Chronomancers Psychomancers should have M8 instead of M5, that might fix the issue as well. Overall Psychomancers would be getting a huge buff from these changes, I think they'd be worth 60-80 pts after the change, where as currently I would say they are worth 40-60.

    The Vanquisher's Mask and The Solar Staff were changed to be more unique, fitting for Dynasty-locked Relics and because Psychomancers now can deliver the effects these relics previously had. The Solar Staff blocking Overwatch was also a little too niche to compete with the insane damage of the Voltaic Staff, I think Advance and Charge would give Nephrekh a reason to exist in the first place, because having mobility that cannot be used offensively is a little weird.

    The Infinity Mantle and Sempiternal Weave are both pretty boring and I think the fluff for the Infinity Mantle is bad and should be replaced with the fluff for the old Nihilakh Stratagem. "Fashioned from unique cosmic materials amassed over aeons amidst the Nihilakh Dynasty's treasure horde, this regal battle armour resists hostile blows and energies by means even its creators do not fully comprehend, and could never recreate." -> "This glittering mantle is formed from slivers of crystallised time, and the bearer can expend the power of these shards to glimpse a matrix of potential futures." The Orb of Eternity needs the stars to align to be worth it and it makes sense for the Orb of Eternity to have an Eternity's worth of activations.

    I thought about changing Cryptek Arkana rules, but I think they are probably fine, their points costs probably just needs to drop by 5-10 each.

    This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 2021/09/06 17:02:14


     
       
    Made in gb
    Dakka Veteran




    Interesting. The Chronomancer does consistently see play, afaik, but I can appreciate the desire to make its options more focused, especially since I don't think I've ever seen anyone take the Aeonstave even for the discount.

    The lost damage and lowered range on the Entropic Lance is going to hurt a lot, even with Sisters, AdMech, Sons and Terminators making invulnerable saves ubiquitous. In my experience, its main usage was to let the Chronomancer act as a flying 18" Meltagun after he'd handed out his buff for the turn. That's gone, now – and with AP-3, ignoring invulnerable saves doesn't even matter against Terminators, who are on-paper the best targets for this new weapon. It's also slightly worse in melee (slightly) just because of the -3 basic S4 attacks. If you're going for "this weapon can't be saved against because you're accelerating time", then it should probably just have a mortal wounds effect.

    The Aeonstave is obviously useless in close combat, and remains so here, unless your opponent very badly needs to Fall Back their full Movement for some reason. At range, though, it's much more interesting than it was; it'll have trouble killing a small dog, but it's a 36" -2M debuff with no means of avoiding it except "not getting hit" on D6 shots at 3+. A bit like the Whirlwind; you're not taking it for the damage. I like the change in principle, but this makes it far and away more attractive to me than the new Entropic Lance.

    I like consolidation of different effects for the Psychomancer; it makes them far more reliable. Tying the no-Overwatch/Set to Defend to a gun makes sense and keeps it the same range, and I'll probably steal it for the Mindstealer. 18" ObSec+Action negation is scary, but I guess it's on a fragile 5" Move model that can't use the ability after disembarking, and you can't innately reduce their Leadership anymore, so... Probably just needs testing.

    I'm not sure how I feel about losing the aura; on the one hand, this streamlines the datasheet, and it was very unlikely to see play due to the Psychomancer not being a melee unit. On the other hand, it added a nice risk-reward dynamic to getting in close; 12" was 3D6 vs Ld, 6" was 3D6 vs Ld-1. And the added innate "fight last" effect means you're encouraged to get in close now regardless.

    This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2021/09/06 17:48:02


     
       
    Made in dk
    Loyal Necron Lychguard






    In response to your post, I increased the range of the lance and nerfed the movement penalty on the stave.

    I changed the Sovereign Coronal in https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/800276.page this thread. I have added changes to The Infinity Mantle, Sempiternal Weave and Orb of Infinity.

    I will have to try putting a Psychomancer in a transport, I never thought of doing that, I just put them in a Relentlessly Expansionist Dynasty and hoped the 6" pregame move would take them where they needed to go.

    I think my memory has short-circuited because my battle reports say I only brought 1 Psychomancer and not the 3 I thought I had brought. I am also eager to test one of the unique Psychomancer wargear pieces and I should definitely try running one in a list with some more Leadership penalties and a transport.

    This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/09/06 17:13:07


     
       
     
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